religious experience

Question 1

what are the three types of visions

Answer 1

• corporeal
• imaginative
• intellectual

Question 2

what are corporeal visions

Answer 2

• these are empirical in that they are supernatural experiences that are mediated through the physical senses
• the visionary sees the figure/object in the same way someone would see a chair

Question 3

what is an example of a corporeal vision

Answer 3

• the 18 visions of mary that bernadette of lourdes experienced
• she saw a small young lady who identified herself as the immaculate conception

Question 4

what are imaginative visions

Answer 4

• these are visions which are mediated through the minds eye, not through physical sight
• they often take the forms of dreams

Question 5

what is an example of an imaginative vision

Answer 5

• Joseph’s dream in which he was told mary was pregnant through the power of the holy spirit and that he was to marry her

Question 6

what are intellectual visions

Answer 6

• in this type of vision there is no image, but the subject of the experience claims to see things as they really are
• these are mystical visions. they are hard to understand as they defy description. they enlighten the soul

Question 7

example of an intellectual vision

Answer 7

• teresa of avila was a mystic who had many such visions

Question 8

what are numinous experiences

Answer 8

• experiences of the wholly other, unrelated to spatiotemporal experiences

Question 9

what does otto believe about numinous experiences

Answer 9

• it is an experience that is the basis of all genuine religion
• it is a non rational and unique form of experience, totally outside our everyday experience
• it is a sense of the wholly other
• the emphasis is on gods transcendence

Question 10

what is the idea of the holy

Answer 10

• the title of Otto’s book on the nature of religious experience
• the word holy means ‘other than’ , ‘seperate from’
• it is an attempt to describe the sense some people have of a reality totally outside and beyond their experience of themselves and the world
• Isaiah’s experience at his call gave rise to his reference to god throughout his prophetic ministry as the holy one of israel

Question 11

what is mysterium tremendum et fascinans

Answer 11

• latin term for a fearful and attractive mystery
• it expresses the complex nature of numinous experiences

Question 12

what does mysterium mean

Answer 12

• refers to something far removed from humanity that can be experienced but not understood
• elicits the response of awe and wonder

Question 13

what does tremendum mean

Answer 13

• refers to the fearsome experience of gods overwhelming majesty and energy
• creates a sense of human nothingness and sinfulness, and consequently absolute dependence on god

Question 14

what does fascinans mean

Answer 14

• the compulsive and attractive nature of the experience creates the desire for a relationship with this Being, despite its fearful nature
• it creates an awareness of the need for salvation
• isaiah experienced gods forgiveness and mercy

Question 15

what does william james believe about religion and religious experiences

Answer 15

• he was sympathetic to religion, though he was not a member of any organised religion
• he applied the insights of science, and particularly psychology
• religious experience is primary
• organised religion arose out of people comparing their religious experiences
• the true purpose of humanity is union with the higher universe that gives this world its significance

Question 16

what are william james’ four criteria for assessing the genuine nature of a mystical experience

Answer 16

• ineffability
• noetic quality
• transiency
• passivity

Question 17

what does ineffability mean in terms of religious experience

Answer 17

• a private experience that makes sense only to other mystics
• it cannot be described in words so negative language may be used

Question 18

what is noetic quality

Answer 18

• the encounter gives a genuine insight into truths
• they consist of non-rational and intuitive rather than intellectual knowledge

Question 19

what does transiency mean for religious experience

Answer 19

• the experience is usually short, almost always no more that 1-2 hours
• with time, it becomes more difficult to reproduce in the memory, but its continuing significance is seen in any further experiences
• it has a life transforming effect on the individual’s view of life

Question 20

what does passivity mean for religious experience

Answer 20

• the experience controls the mystic, whose will is unable to direct what happens
• this may result in unusual activity e.g teresa of avila is said to have levitated

Question 21

what does walter stace believe about religious experience

Answer 21

• like james, stace saw little point in attempting rational proofs of gods existence because god is either a mystery or nothing at all
• he saw the goal of all religious experience as union with god
• mysticism is nothing to do with the occult or parapsychology, visions or auditory experiences

Question 22

what are the two types of mystical experience

Answer 22

• introvertive
• extrovertive

Question 23

what are the seven features of introvertive mystical experiences

Answer 23

• pure consciousness
• non spatial and non temporal
• sense of reality
• sense of absolute peace
• sense of the holy
• experience of paradox
• an ineffable experience

Question 24

what are the seven features of extrovertive mystical experiences

Answer 24

• all things are One
• a sense of the One as inner subjectivity or life in all things
• sense of reality
• sense of absolute peace
• sense of the holy
• experience of the paradox
• an ineffable experience

Question 25

what are introvertive mystical experiences

Answer 25

• the ultimate mystical experience
• sense experience is totally suppressed
• there is no awareness of the world
• there is no intellectual function
• ordinary human consciousness is replaced with mystical consciousness in which the ‘I’ is absent

Question 26

what are extrovertive mystical experiences

Answer 26

• a halfway house to the introvertive experience
• normal objects are seen with the physical senses, but they are transfigured so that the non sensuous unity of all things shines through them

Question 27

arguments why religious experiences cant be verified

Answer 27

• we only have the word of the experient that the experience took place
• the experiences are highly subjective and personal, so are not objectively real. they are simply interpretation
• the inability to describe mystical experiences suggests that they are not real. james claimed there was a fine line between mysticism and insanity

Question 28

arguments why religious experiences can be verified

Answer 28

• people who have had religious experiences are likely to claim that they were objectively real
• ineffability is a key characteristic of mystical experiences in all religions. it is difficult to investigate them, but that does not mean they are false

Question 29

psychological arguments why religious experiences cannot be verified

Answer 29

• freud claimed visions were just illusions created by subconscious fears and desires. they were at the best signs of immaturity and at the worst signs of mental illness
• the experiences can be explained psychologically or medically
• neuroscience shows that religious experiences can be simulated through devices like the god helmet

Question 30

psychological arguments why religious experiences can be verified

Answer 30

• god could work through peoples conditions
• jung challenged freud, arguing that the visions of sane people were not necessarily delusions. in his view they often had beneficial results for the experient

Question 31

what are swinburnes principles of credulity and testimony

Answer 31

• credulity – in the absence of special considerations, how things seem to a person is how they really are. this is essentially about the believability of the individuals own personal and private experience
• testimony – in the absence of special considerations, we should believe what people tell us. this is essentially about the reliability of what others claim about their personal experiences

Question 32

what are swinburnes special considerations

Answer 32

• if the person claiming the experience has been known to tell lies in the past
• if the claim seems beyond the realms of possibility
• it is very difficult to show that god was present
• there are other ways of accounting for the experience

Question 33

what are the rejections of swinburnes special considerations

Answer 33

• having lied in the past does not necessarily mean the person is lying
• just because one claim is false does not mean all other claims are false
• if god is everywhere, the burden of proof is with the doubter, not the experient
• as god underpins all processes, there is no reason why he should not work through the intense electrical activity of the brain

Question 34

what are arguments against swinburnes approach

Answer 34

• it is a huge leap to go from saying that normal observable sense experiences are reliable to claiming the same for religious experiences, which are metaphysical
• others can confirm claims about ordinary sense experiences, whereas religious experiences are essentially private and incapable of scientific investigation
• even if the experient is convinced that it was an experience of god, that does not mean that god is in fact the right explanation

Question 35

what are arguments supporting swinburnes argument

Answer 35

• as james pointed out, transformation in lifestyle is a powerful argument for the genuineness of religious experience
• other people’s claims to such experiences combined with transformed lives give further support

Question 36

arguments why religious experiences have value for religious faith

Answer 36

• some religious experiences have caused the founding of religions
• religious experiences are often inspirational leading others to faith in and about god